District 51 School Board members approved a recommendation to the Colorado High School Activities Association to make lacrosse a District 51 sport. Currently, the sport is played by middle schoolers and high schoolers as a club sport in the Grand Valley.
Archive for May, 2008
Telluride, Colo. - The Telluride Lacrosse team has turned it all around. They put the brakes on last year’s 0-7 slide of a season and put together a strong winning season for the first time in … well … nobody is sure how long.
Nearly taking first in a tournament in the Vail Valley this past weekend and instead settling for a close second ensured them a winning record.
They’re 5-2 heading into their final game this Saturday at 2 p.m. in Lawson Hill. They’ll play Montrose, who they’ve already beaten twice.
“We’re pretty excited about being ensured a winning season,” said Michael Hein, the coach of the club lacrosse team. “This year we ran with everybody, and we were hitting and we were breaking bones. We were a completely different team this year than last year.”
The clearest evidence of that came this past weekend. The lacrosse squad was narrowly edged out of the tournament championship by Grand Valley, but they beat Durango, Basalt and Loveland by the scores of 5-3, 5-1, and 6-5, respectively.
It was against Durango, which has had a strong lacrosse team in recent years, that Hein realized his players had become a better, different team than it had been.
“There was just a moment when things slowed down and they were able to see the whole field instead of the guys in front of them,” Hein said. “I think at that point we just realized that we could beat anybody if we played well enough.”
During the tournament, goals came from Jeffrey Erickson, Shawn Swain and freshman Tucker Hensen.
And David Conrad, a senior. He had been determined all year to score a goal, despite being a defenseman.
Against Loveland, he made it happen. He took the ball and ran 80 yards down the field, took his first shot of the season, and scored.
“We were just on a mission at that point to annihilate everybody in our path,” Hein said.
For kids who live in a remote alpine valley nearly two miles high, the lacrosse season is compact, slammed together over the course of a month or so.
That puts them at a disadvantage against teams from bigger valleys at lower altitudes, which not only have huge rosters but were practicing well before the snow melted in Telluride.
Hein hopes his team will close out with a win versus Montrose. But he knows that the kids from down the road will come ready to play.
“It’s still a Montrose team, so there’s gonna be big players,” Hein said. “They’re gonna be pissed, and they’re gonna be better than they were last time. I know they’re gonna be looking for a win.”
Telluride, Colo. - After a whole year of nurturing, prodding, leading, and coaching, Katie Kennedy is switching sides, turning her back, and trying to destroy the team she helped create.
The coach of the Telluride girls lacrosse team will be on the opposite team today in Lawson Hill, when her team takes on a group of recreational grown-up female lacrosse players — for fun bragging rights.
“I’m not gonna go easy on them,” Kennedy said.
The game starts at 5:30 p.m., and Kennedy says she’s looking for more players to join the grown-up team — and destroy the middle and high school kids.
It’s the last time her lacrosse girls will take the field this season, their second season. It’s also their first and only home game.
They traveled all over the Western Slope, playing six games against Aspen, Grand Valley, Battle Mountain and Eagle Valley.
“We showed great improvement over the course of the season,” said Kennedy.
The team had only five returning players.
“The rest were all brand new, which was pretty exciting,” Kennedy said.
There were 15 girls who had barely picked up a stick before in their lives, ranging in age from 7th grade to seniors.
The team did not win any games.
But by their final tournament, last weekend in Edwards, goals were scored by Brittany Biggs, Kenya Johnson, Mia McLaughlin, Tenae Sandoval, and Nina Gerona.
And the goal was tended by Devin Erie, Willow Thompson and Kim Kiser.
Kennedy was helped by volunteer coaches Sara Taylor, Darcy Badger, Karen Raleigh and Jennifer Hubbard.
“The sport’s growing,” Kennedy said. She hopes her team will have a successful season next year.
Junior middie McKenzie Brown scored seven goals and dished one assist to lead No. 1 Cherry Creek to a 15-12 victory over No. 4 Heritage/Littleton in the Colorado High School Activities Association state championship game Wednesday night at Douglas County Stadium.
Senior middie Lauren Johnson added six points on three goals and three assists, and senior middie Allie Welsh registered five points on two goals and three assists, as Cherry Creek (15-4) won its third straight state title and fifth championship in the last six years.
Senior attack Leslie Brentlinger, senior attack Kathryn Keppler and senior middie Morgan Johnson all finished with two points on a goal and an assist for Cherry Creek, which has now won eight state championships.
Cherry Creek was a perfect 14-0 against in-state competition this season, and the Bruins have now won 27 straight against Colorado teams. Cherry Creek is also on a 42-game unbeaten streak against its in-state rivals, having not lost to a Colorado team since March 14, 2006.
“We only had two kids on this team who were returning starters,” said Cherry Creek Coach Cayel Dwyer, who won his fourth state championship. “To be able to win another state championship, it’s a huge accomplishment. And it all comes down to the work ethic of our players.”
In a losing effort, junior middie Liz Datino scored four goals and added one assist, freshman middie Anna Salemo and senior middie Olivia Annalora each netted four goals, and senior goalie Anna Wallingford saved 21 shots for Heritage/Littleton, which finished the season 16-3.
Cherry Creek led 6-4 at halftime before scoring three unanswered goals to start the second half and push ahead, 9-4. Cherry Creek took its biggest lead of the game at 11-5 after Brown scored with 21:54 remaining.
Heritage/Littleton fought back, closing the deficit all the way down to two goals at 14-12 following Datino’s fourth goal with 3:03 remaining in regulation. But Brentlinger answered to put the Bruins back up by three goals with 2:12 to play.
“They played great midfield defense, and we struggled early,” Dwyer said. “We were able to get our transition game going, and what we found out is if you move the goalie left to right, it’s a lot easier to beat her.”
Kent Denver 15, Fort Collins Unified 6
Attackman Moses Taylor waited patiently, worked diligently and seized the moment Saturday night, helping Kent Denver gain a 15-6 victory over Fort Collins Unified in the boys state lacrosse championships at Invesco Field at Mile High.
Kent (20-0) avenged a 7-6 loss to Fort Collins in last season’s championship game and earned its fifth state title in the 10 years the sport has been sanctioned by the Colorado High School Activities Association.
With a beautiful Saturday in Denver, the Outlaws are set to open their 2008 campaign at INVESCO Field at Mile High this evening at 7pm. The CHSAA boy’s championship lacrosse game between Kent Denver and Ft. Collins will preceed the Outlaws game, with a 4:30pm faceoff. Outlaws tickets start at just $8 and are available at the INVESCO Field at Mile High box office or by visiting Ticketmaster.com.
Karlyn Tilley LITTLETON, Colo. (CBS4) ― The Colorado High School Activities Association says the Arapahoe High School lacrosse team will be banned from next year’s playoffs unless it can prove changes have been made. The discipline comes after two players were accused of cheating in a state playoff game.
DENVER, May 13, 2008 - The Denver Outlaws of Major League Lacrosse announced their roster for the 2008 season. The roster, released today, announced that Ryan Powell, the newest member of the team, will play attack alongside returning attackmen Brendan Mundorf, Matt Brown, and Drew Westervelt. Powell was the first player to be named the League’s MVP multiple times.
In the midfield position, the Outlaws include: Jeff Sonke, Brian Langtry, Greg Bastis, Casey Cittadino, Tom Garvey, Lucius Polk, Brian Jacovina, Lou Braun, Benson Erwin and newly-acquired Nate Watkins. Matt Hanna is slated to play both attack and midfield. The face-off midfielders will be Geoff Snider and Adam Fassnacht. Midfielder Josh Sims is currently on the Injured Reserve list, but will be joining the team in a few weeks.
The defensemen for the Outlaws include Lee Zink, Tom Ethington, Sean McCarthy, Tom Garvey and Zach Jungers. Rounding out the team, Jesse Schwartzman, Alex Smith, and Harry Alford are the goalies.
Former Denver University Pioneers include Matt Brown, Tom Ethington, Geoff Snider, and Ryan Zordani, who also graduated from Heritage High School in Littleton.
Indoor crossover players from the Mammoth of the NLL (National Lacrosse League) include Brian Langtry, Josh Sims, Nick Carlson, Matt Brown and Tom Ethington.
Powell to miss opener, but local lacrosse talent abounds on team
“It’s a lot better having him than playing against him.” Brian Reese, Outlaws coach and general manager, on acquiring Ryan Powell, left (Associated Press file photo )
The Denver Outlaws have never forgotten one of the greatest performances in Major League Lacrosse history, simply because they could not stop it: Ryan Powell’s nine-goal scoring spree against Denver on June 10, 2006.
GRAND JUNCTION — Lacrosse originated as a sport among the American Indian tribes of northeastern North America — and has long been a popular sport in schools in the eastern United States. The sport is gradually making its way westward.
Lenny Lang grew up in New York and played lacrosse in high school and college. His son “got a taste” of the sport while visiting family back east in 2006 and wanted to be able to play it in Grand Junction.
